Hike and Gear Check on the Butterfield Hiking Trail, Devil's Den, Arkansas | The Social Regressive
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- čas přidán 4. 11. 2014
- Supakrunch and I spent two days on the Butterfield Hiking Trail in Western Arkansas. This 14.x-mile loop begins and ends in Devil's Den State Park. Along the way we discuss our hiking gear selections and load-outs.
The weather was lovely, if a little warm for late October. We encountered no rain, but the streams were full (and delicious).
We usually have problems with weight; I typically end up with a 50-lb pack. This time, however, I think our backpacks weighed closer to 30 lbs than 40. We managed this by reducing our redundant fire-starting and cooking systems, packing lightweight, freeze-dried foods, and carrying fewer items of clothing. We brought no stoves with us, and instead relied upon local timber.
Tents: Alps Zephyr 3 and Ledge Tarantula
Packs: (2) USMC ILBE backpacks, (1) Ribz front pack
Sleeping Bags: (2) Military Sleep System Patrol Bags, compressed
Water Storage: (1) Camelbak Omega 3L and (2) Nalgene Bottles
Water Purification: Sawyer MINI (Squeeze), Katadyn Hiker Pro, and PUR water purification tablets
Fire-Making: BIC lighter, storm-proof matches, dryer lint, cotton balls, vaseline
Footwear: (1pr) BassPro Redhead Voyager 8" boots
Food: Backcountry Pantry freeze-dried meals, mashed potatoes, tuna, eel, crackers, trail mix
Morale Boosters: Almond Snickers, cocoa mix
Beautiful hike and views :) Thumbs up and Greetings from Ireland! :)
+Drone Girl Ireland...now there's a place I would love to backpack someday. Thanks for stopping by!
saw the comment about carrying out other people's garbage. thank you for being awsome. me and my wife always bring extra platic bags just for that reason. we love the land and we love to see others respect it despite others ruining it.
+Hurc Lazo I'm glad you guys haul out trash, too! I always wonder what kind of hiker leaves garbage along the trails and camp sites.
If you guys camp together, is there a reason you dont just share a tent? Especially since you each carry non UL 3 man tents. Thats a good 6 or 7 lbs per person once you add in tent/fly/stakes/poles/groundsheet etc. And while I saw several other cheap and easy ways to lighten your loads, you weren't too bad. I think if you try sharing some things rather than each of you duplicating stuff unnecessarily (which you seemed to do bigtime), you can save a ton of weight. Even without expensive UL gear there is no reason to be above 20 or 25 lbs of gear per person (without food and water) And it could easily be 15 in a group where you can split up the load of items you all can share.And I would recommend trying trail runners for shoes, or some hiking shoes (they have some stiffer soles for rocks vs runners) rather than boots. Boots are just super heavy and every pound on your foot is equal to 5 in your pack. I swapped over and its just so much better, far lighter, and I dont get blisters anymore. There's a reason thru hikers wear them.
Great question, and there are three excellent answers why we did it this way this time: We wanted to test the two tents. Supakrunch snores like a garbage disposal with a handful of rocks in it. I fart. A lot. :D
what is the daily entry fee for the Devils den park??
+Tim V (The Texan Camper) From what I can recall, there is no daily use fee. You only have to pay for a camp site. And I think you don't need to pay if you're using a backcountry camp site; only the sites in the park cost $8 per night.
I have just bought the ILBE pack for backpacking. Does the initial weight of the pack reduce the amount of workload you can do on the trail?
+Ben Lotz It does, but the comfort of the pack makes it easy to carry a bit more weight than usual, in my opinion. My recommendation is to seriously consider every item you're bringing, then throw out an item or two. Keeping a loadout below 40 pounds makes a huge difference in how far you can travel. Keeping it around 30 pounds makes a trip easy.
+The Social Regressive Okay thanks for the info!
Ben Lotz
You bet!
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